French Open 2008 – Ginepri carrying torch for US
Nick’s Picks will have complete coverage of the 2008 French Open, and is coming to you live from Paris!! Also, Nick is teaming with Tennis Week to provide in-depth analysis of the French Open throughout the tournament! Check out Nick’s Picks for the entire men’s and women’s draws!
Who would have thought that the last American – male or female – in the draw would have been Robby Ginepri. The 25-year old American came into the tournament ranked #88 in the world and not having played overly well on clay this year. Well, today he eliminated Frenchman Florent Serra 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the fourth round. Ginepri played his game to win this match. He has big groundstrokes and is relentless with them. He put constant pressure on Serra and was able to control the points form the get-go. He will get a very good clay-courter in the fourth round in Fernando Gonzalez, and if he could pull off that upset the US would be very proud!
Speaking of Gonzalez, he was involved in one of four matches that went five sets today. He came back from two-sets down to beat Stanislas Wawrinka 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Other five set winners included David Ferrer, Ivan Ljubicic, and Gael Monfils.
Ferrer and Lleyton Hewitt played a great five-setter, but it in unusual result it was Hewitt that wore down at the end. Usually, Hewitt is the one wearing down his opponents and stamina is one of his biggest attributes. But heading into the French Open, Hewitt hadn’t played much tennis, and after going up two sets to one he needed to put the pressure on in the fourth set. Once Ferrer was able to get that set, that momentum went to him. Tough break for Hewitt, but I think it is a good result for him considering the circumstances.
Monfils needed five sets to beat Jurgen Melzer, and it wasn’t easy. For some reason, Monfils played extremely far behind the baseline almost daring Melzer to drop-shot him. And that is exactly what the Austrian did. Time after time, Melzer drew Monfils into the net and forced the Frenchman to come up with a great shot. Sometimes he would, but more often than not he couldn’t. Monfils was terrific when serving, but as soon as the points went into long rallies Melzer took control. It was an interesting match, and in the end Monfils simply wore Melzer down. Another good win for him, and now he will face Ivan Ljubicic who upset Nikolay Davydenko in five sets. We may not see a whole lot of service breaks in that match.
On the women’s side, we caught the first set between Maria Sharapova and Karin Knapp. That was the first time we saw Knapp live in action and she was impressive. She went for broke on almost every shot and has excellent groundstrokes and serves very well. One thing that was interesting was that on Sharapova’s second serves, Knapp would either step into the court or step into the ally which frustrated Sharapova enough to make her hit double faults. This tactic is a good one to use no matter what your age, ability, or skill level. Giving your opponent a different look on the serve will distract them, and may even give you a couple free points.
After losing the first set in a tiebreak, Knapp collapsed in the second set and didn’t win a game. That is the difference between good players and great ones. Knapp cannot go into the second set thinking about the first one, she has to regroup and find a way to compete in the second. She was very close to winning that opening set, and if she would have believed in herself she could have made that a match. Too bad.
For Sharapova, this was a good win. She looks at ease on the clay, and was coming forward to put away defensive returns throughout the match. She gets Dinara Safina next, and that is going to be an interesting match.
All in all it was a good day at Roland Garros, stay tuned for more updates throughout the tournament…
